


whatever you may be

by saraheli



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F, Fluff, dryad!vivi, kitsune!yves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 03:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16694521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saraheli/pseuds/saraheli
Summary: Playing human never takes away what you are. Sooyoung becomes hyper-conscious of this when, after living amongst humans for so long, finally finds herself falling for one. Her natural inclination for deceit comes to be a disadvantage, but when she finds out that her secret crush isn’t quite what she seemed either, her whole world feels backward.





	whatever you may be

**Author's Note:**

> yvi one shot per anonymous request: Do you think you'd be up for writing a story were Vivi and Yves are both like mythical creatures (maybe a witch and mermaid (or whatever fits)) living in secret in our world and they live down the hall from each other and they are both secretly courting each other (like in a secret admirer way) and they live clues behind as to who and what they are? You can decide everything else from there.

With a huff, Sooyoung yanked her heels from her feet and threw them into her apartment as she entered. Such was the Monday—hell,  _ weekday  _ evening routine; Ha Sooyoung hated her job. Journalism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, turns out, and it’s especially horrible when the boss man keeps putting you on stories that could just as easily be half-written by the interns. Why should she have to write bottom-of-the-barrel pieces anyway? What are journalism degrees for if not a straight shot to at least the mediocre filler pages? And, in the case of Sooyoung, what was the point of pretending to be human if you couldn’t even be a cover story one? 

The life of a kitsune in the modern human world is often a boring one; people, engulfed in their studies and screens and otherwise endless streams of stimuli, were less useful and less in the way. To many myth-folk, this made the world easier to navigate as there were fewer boundaries and fewer reasons to stay hidden as humans tended to talk themselves out of seeing strange things or distract each other too much to see in the first place: they could live just like anyone else. This, however, was precisely what Sooyoung detested. Creatures that thrive off of mischief and trouble are destroyed by a lack of attention even if that attention is just a column on the front of a paper or, more personally, a glance across a corridor. 

A glance—now that had been something to feed off of. The girl across the hall in Sooyoung’s building was the only thing that kept her from burning the place down in frustration; Wong Kahei was perfect and the perfect opposite to the fiery nature of her neighbor. Her complexion was as cool and clear as her demeanor, each consonant placed perfectly on the ticking end of her tongue whenever she spoke. She played classical music over her bluetooth speaker and hummed as she cooked herself dinner every single evening, the smells luring Sooyoung to just up and knock down her door for a decent meal and company. The most she would do, however, pausing to sink down into her sofa, would be to write another note. 

_ 55A: _

_ I hope you had a good day today. My day, in case you were curious, was unsurprisingly negative, but my mood was helped a little by your voice this evening. You played the same song last night, too. I’m sure you cooked something delicious; you must have if it smelled like that. I hope this doesn’t come off as creepy—it easily could, I think, but I wanted you to know nonetheless. I’ll look forward to your note later this week.  _

_ — 50A _

Under any other circumstances, Sooyoung might have reprimanded herself for even writing something so sappy and borderline stalkerish to anyone she wasn’t genuinely attempting to scare or trick. Besides, she justified it to herself with a little reminder that this wouldn’t be her first note, and, on top of that, Kahei had written them, too, and hers were often adorned with little hearts and stickers that made Sooyoung feel like she might puke at how stupidly cute she was. 

Somehow, however, it seemed that Kahei was unaware of who Sooyoung was (not true; Kahei most certainly knew who was sending the definitely-not-nervous notes). Regardless of how many times she attempted to say hello or drop hints, the other girl never seemed to acknowledge Sooyoung in the way she expected. This doubt flooded her mind as she taped the paper to her neighbor’s door. 

Kahei, on the other hand, was certainly not ignoring her admirer; she was, aside from being shy and busy, painfully aware that Sooyoung was not human. Dryads, being absurdly observant creatures, couldn’t be asked to ignore anything about their environment without being terribly inconvenienced. It wasn’t so much, however, that Sooyoung wasn’t human, though. Not knowing for sure what she was? That was it. The fiery energy that radiated from the other girl’s form whenever they passed was beyond intimidating to her, and it was nearly impossible to tell one fire being from another when they dressed like normal people. 

Now, today had been a moment of simultaneous weakness and bravery for Kahei. At five in the evening, she never would have spared a look across the hallway, and she never would have smiled at meeting Sooyoung’s eyes, but the mere seconds made her heart flutter as she fumbled for her keys. As she slipped into her apartment then, she flattened herself back against the door and let out a long breath. 

She shook her head at herself—she had decided a long while ago that she wouldn’t allow herself to plant roots here, either figuratively or literally—and put her stereo on blast. The music drowned out what noise she couldn’t silence and the thoughts she was too tired to bat away. She chopped a stalk of green onion, a clove of garlic, and whatever else she needed to procure the comfort food she desired. Leaving the food to simmer on the stove, though, she couldn’t stop herself from going to pluck Sooyoung’s note from the front of her door. 

She read it while weaving a wooden spoon through her stew, her lips quirking up at the corners as her eyes flickered over Sooyoung’s handwriting sprawled over the paper. She paused, sighed, and held the note to her chest wistfully. 

Kahei wrote her response as she spooned broth and vegetables into her mouth, her pen scratching a response onto the page:

_ Sooyoung _ ~~_ ie _ ~~ _ :  _

_ I think it’s okay for you to use my name in your notes by this point! It’s not like it’s a secret anymore. _

It had been a secret at a time, and the prospect of having a secret admirer made Kahei blush at the thought alone, but, now that it was clear that they were aware of one another, she felt emboldened and allowed her unedited emotions fuel her writing.

_ Plus...I think my name would look pretty in your handwriting.  Do you like the way I write your name? I’ll do it a few more times so that you have lots of examples! Sooyoung Sooyoung Ha Sooyoungie~ That feels silly, haha. How does it look? I also think that it’s a little weird that we’re still at the penpal stage…I mean, you know where I live, and you’re so close...Just knock on my door sometime. If you don’t, I’ll have to come over, and do it instead~  _

_ See you soon~ _

_ Kahei _

Reading the note over again, Kahei crumpled it into a ball. Why should she force Sooyoung to make the decision to come over? Why could she not do it herself? Maybe because of that fire in her eyes—after all, what was that?  The worst possibility was that she would be a demon of some kind, and at best she could be a kitsune, which would be perfectly easy to deal with (if not slightly exhausting), but there was more than just a  _ possibility _ that a demon could be luring the young dryad as the seemingly weak forest spirits often found themselves preyed upon by the stronger entities such as them. 

With a shaky breath, though, she shuffled across the hall, note clutched to her chest between damp fingers, and knocked on the door to 50A. In the moments that passed between her knock and the response from Sooyoung on the other side, Kahei felt her chest ache from innocent butterflies and her stomach turn from a tight knot of fear, she could, after all, very well be leading herself into—

“Wong Kahei,” Sooyoung said in surprise, eyes becoming round as she looked down at the girl. Even with a doorway between them, she could smell the sage and thyme in her hair. She looked down at the crown of Kahei’s head as she bowed it and furrowed her eyebrows. “Can I help you with something?”

“I got your note,” Kahei gulped. “I wrote you one back, and...and I was going to tape it to your door like normal, but...well, I didn’t, so here.” She dropped the moistened paper into Sooyoung’s half-open palm. “It’s really lame,” Kahei picked at her fingernails. “But—”

“But mine was more lame, right?” Sooyoung chuckled, smoothing her thumb over the crumpled paper. “Do you want to come in—”

“Oh, I don’t think I should,” Kahei tilted her head to the side and moved back into the hallway towards her own apartment. 

“You’re all the way here, though,” Sooyoung breathed, the tips of her ears burning as she reached out to gently clasp her wrist. The hot spirit beneath her skin screamed at her to reach out and yank the other girl inside. Something golden glinted in her eyes, and she could almost feel the heat spark there. She squeezed her eyes shut. 

“Ah,” Kahei winced at the warmth of the fingers on her arm. “That hurts.”

“Shoot,” she let go immediately. “I’m sorry. I, um, I have a fox spirit. It gets too warm sometimes, and it makes me act like a freak.” She stared with huge eyes down at the other girl. “If that makes you uncomfortable, I understand if you want to leave. Kitsunes aren’t exactly favored, especially not in this part of the city.”

_ Kitsune _ .

“A kitsune,” Kahei breathed, her mouth turning up at the corners. “That’s a relief.”

* * *

The rest is history from there. Sooyoung invited her inside again, and Kahei again refused, telling her to save it for another time. They passed many more notes over the next few weeks, each of them hand-delivered and signed with a name that would make the other’s heart flutter. The dryad and the kitsune learned a lot from one another before ever exchanging touches or sharing space; before ever closing that space with shaky breaths and quivering lips and giddy laughter to undercut whatever fear was left.

The rest is history from the first trading of i-love-yous and don’t-gos. From their first trip to their forest lands together, and from the first glimpse of their genuine forms beneath the night sky, alight with stars, they belonged to one another, and they always would. 


End file.
